Chapter 0944: The Scramble

Chapter 0944: The Scramble

Seeing this brocade-robed man rushing out, the gold-robed man standing beside him frowned a little. He couldn’t understand his companion’s actions. At this time, everyone was in a hurry to come here, but he actually rushed out from this place.

“What is Mu Yuxiong doing?” The gold-robed man asked in confusion. He knew that fellow’s character better than anyone else here. Mu Yuxiong would never willingly suffer a loss. The pill sage’s furnace hadn’t appeared yet, so what forced him to rush out like that?

Someone obviously overheard the brocade-robed man’s murmurings before he left. Now that the gold-robed man asked, the cultivator who heard him laughed and said, “He wants a woman. Right, he said something about heavenly fragrance, then that woman, and then ran out. Hehe, it looks like that woman is more important to him than the heavenly flame and the pill sage’s pill furnace……”

The replying cultivator’s words abruptly stalled halfway through. Heavenly fragrance, that woman, could it be a woman with the Heavenly Fragrance Body? It didn’t matter if everyone knew of Mu Yuxiong’s perverted nature. Facing the temptation of the pill sage’s pill furnace and heavenly flame, if a Heavenly Fragrance Body truly appeared, anyone would leave this place without a second thought.

Although the pill sage’s pill furnace and the heavenly flame he used for alchemy were here, there were quite a few strong people here already. In other words, it was just a matter of too many people and too little meat. There was even a good chance that they might not obtain anything.

But if a woman with a Heavenly Fragrance Body did appear, wouldn’t it be a heaven-sent opportunity? In other words, it was just like a pie falling from the sky; such an opportunity was something almost impossible to even dream of.

A woman with a Heavenly Fragrance Body would be equivalent to countless dao fruits. It would make it easier to advance to the next level and prove their Dao more leisurely. Even if they found her dead, or even in parts for the matter, it would still mean an unaccountable fortune.

In just a few moments, the surrounding cultivations connected the dots.

Then, dozens of silhouettes rushed out, following the direction Mu Yuxiong had left. They might not have enough power to snatch the pill furnace, but for grabbing a woman with the Heavenly Fragrance Body…….. Even if they couldn’t, so what? As long as they could obtain a cup of her blood during the scuffle, it would mean a massive fortune.

……

Ning Cheng’s cultivation had long since reached the full circle of the Eternal Realm. He had even perfectly integrated the five elemental origins of the Mysterious Yellow Pearl with the help of his injured essence spirit. As such, his spiritual roots and meridians’ healing speed had also accelerated by several folds. Therefore, his essence spirit could now, theoretically, go beyond the limits of his physical body.

After his purple mansion fused into the Mysterious Yellow Bead, the origin aura’s dao rhythm helped the dao rhythm of Ning Cheng’s essence spirit flow more smoothly and freely. Eventually, the dao rhythm produced vague but substantial chants around his essence spirit.

The dao rhythm’s chants grew from faint to clear and transformed into continuous dao patterns surrounding Ning Cheng’s essence spirit. The aura from these dao patterns kept washing over his essence spirit over and over again. Ning Cheng’s essence spirit, which sat in his Sea of Consciousness with its eyes closed, started to grow more and more solid under the continuous effects of the dao patterns. Moreover, as it grew more substantial, the bubbling essence qi within his essence spirit started to overflow. It felt as if his essence spirit was about to form a physical body.

As the dao rhythm continually produced chants, Ning Cheng felt his essence spirit’s strength soaring frantically. At this point, Ning Cheng suddenly had an inexplicable thought in his heart. His essence spirit was too fragile to withstand this kind of dao rhythm tempering, which meant he needed a stronger essence spirit. Perhaps one day, his essence spirit could be capable of fighting against enemies by itself.

Ning Cheng just thought about it when his essence spirit began to crack open, and a burst of tearing pain came through.

Ning Cheng was a body refining cultivator and had experienced many painful experiences. But all that pain wasn’t even a tenth of the pain he felt when his essence spirit started to crack open, and it felt like ten thousand ants eating at his still-beating heart.

With his essence spirit still cracking apart and convulsing, his fleshy body also started to tremble uncontrollably. Had his body not reach the peak of Starry Sky Body, it might have already collapsed under this ghastly pain.

“All things in heaven and earth, if they want to go up one level, have to fuse countless things into one. Nirvana for a cultivator is the re-gathering of the scattered insights; nirvana for the Sea of Consciousness is to make the Sea of Consciousness free of impurities and transform it into one whole. Today, the spirit essence reached perfection, but the physical body and essence spirit remain separate. The essence spirit can also experience nirvana and shape the dao…..”

A dao rhythm aura manifested within Ning Cheng’s consciousness. Ning Cheng immediately understood what his essence spirit wanted to do. Rather, it moved instinctively, wanting to achieve nirvana and rise from the ashes.

The tearing pain made Ning Cheng unable to think why his essence spirit would act independently or achieve nirvana. He simply had no energy left to even think about it. Rather, all of his energy got sucked out to power the dao rhythm tempering, to let his essence spirit undergo nirvana and allow it to rise from the ashes.

The origin aura of the Mysterious Yellow Bead and the dao rhythms that surrounded Ning Cheng continuously washed over Ning Cheng’s cracking essence spirit. It healed and tempered Ning Cheng’s essence spirit before cracking open once again. This cycle went on so many times that Ning Cheng had lost count.

Fortunately, after one particular cycle, a golden glow invisible to the naked eyes started to spread out around Ning Cheng’s essence spirit. Then, a moment later, Ning Cheng’s essence spirit slowly began to stand up within his Sea of Consciousness.

As his essence spirit grew more solid, Ning Cheng’s essence spirit stepped out with a single step. Then, forming arcane gestures within its hands, his essence spirit started to chant:

“A man involved in Dao, involved in heaven and earth, must unite billions, and only then know success. The man’s spirit, bound by flesh and blood, must still surpass the physical body. Billions are blind to the truth of Dao, not from a lack of will, but from their own inability! My Dao, with the nirvana of essence spirit, stands above billions of lives!”

“The spirit is born from the Dao, and the form is born from the essence. This is the law of heaven and earth, but nirvana of essence spirit is no more than the rhythm of the Dao!”

“My Dao, it’s formed by the nirvana of essence spirit!”

“My Dao, it’s opened by me!”

“My Dao, it’s all things returning to one!”

“My Dao, it’s stepping on top of all Dao!”

……

Rolling dao rhythms drummed around Ning Cheng’s essence spirit as if the world itself was tossing and turning. Just the sound itself was astonishing. Ning Cheng’s entire Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness filled up with these rolling dao rhythms. But this roaring primarily came from the dao rhythms’ chants.

The rolling dao rhythms grew more condensed, and even if Ning Cheng had a Starry Sky Sea of Consciousness, he couldn’t stop the spread of these dao rhythms. As these dao rhythms grew stronger and stronger, Ning Cheng’s essence spirit also grew more solid. It felt that these dao rhythms would eventually rush out of Ning Cheng’s Sea of Consciousness.

……

Yan Ji felt a little worried as she untied Ning Cheng from her back and hugged him in her arms.

She had felt something wrong even before Ning Cheng started trembling. But now, it looked as if every muscle in Ning Cheng’s body was spasming at the same time. It seemed as if someone held a knife and continuously cut strips of flesh from his body.

Feeling the pain radiating out from Ning Cheng’s body, Yan Ji felt like someone stabbed a knife through her heart. She wanted to transfer all the pain from Ning Cheng’s body to herself or share a part of it to reduce Ning Cheng’s discomfort.

Fortunately, after half an hour in such a state, Ning Cheng’s painful convulsions finally settled down. Yan Ji also wiped off the sweat from her face, feeling slightly relieved.

She picked up Ning Cheng once again and was about to place him on her back and continue escaping when a swift shadow suddenly appeared in front of her.

When Yan Ji saw this figure, her heart trembled. She had seen this brocade-robed man before, standing next to the gold-robed man back then. That golden-robed man[1] had killed over a hundred innocent cultivators with a single move.

“Hahaha, remember, from now on, your man’s name is Mu Yuxiong……” The man in brocade robes opened his mouth and laughed loudly when he saw Yan Ji. He once again perceived the same faint scent; it came from the woman in front of him.

With his eyes, how could he not see that the woman in front of him was still a virgin? Seeing that Yan Ji had a veil on her face, he didn’t even think about it and raised his hand to grab Yan Ji.

Even if Yan Ji looked ugly, he wouldn’t care. But deep down in his heart, he naturally hoped that this woman with the Heavenly Fragrance Body would have a pretty appearance. After all, as long as this woman lived, she would have to accompany him forever.

When Yan Ji saw the other party’s hand reaching out to her, she quickly flew back and retreated. It’s just that her cultivation was too poor. Against Mu Yuxiong, who had already stepped into the Dao Confirming Realm, her little bit of cultivation didn’t amount to anything. Unfortunately, with the other party deliberately moving to restrict her movement, she couldn’t fully move away in time.

“Bang.” With a loud explosion, the veil on Yan Ji’s face turned into shreds and dissipated into thin air. The lotus-imprinted jade piece on her chest had already started to lose effect, but that explosive force caused a crack to appear on it.

The jade piece engraved with a lotus flower already couldn’t block Yan Ji’s Heavenly Fragrance Body. But with this additional crack, an extraordinarily faint but fresh fragrance started to waft out of her. An ordinary person wouldn’t notice it, but one could immediately sense this fragrant scent as a cultivator.

Mu Yuxiong stared at Yan Ji in a daze. He had never expected that Yan Ji would be so stunningly beautiful. Even if he had seen many beautiful women before, he still felt shocked by Yan Ji’s appearance. It took him a while before he noticed the faint, fragrant scent from her body.

Yes, it really was a Heavenly Fragrance Body. A woman with such a stunning Heavenly Fragrance Body had actually appeared in front of him. Even though it actually happened, Mu Yuxiong still couldn’t believe his eyes.

He quickly reacted without thinking and went forward to grab Yan Ji. As for the pill sage’s pill furnace and the pill flame in the Black and White Mountains, whoever liked to have them can have them. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them, but he didn’t have the energy to compete against others for those things right now. But with the Heavenly Fragrance Body in front of him, hehe…

“Boom…..” A fierce essence qi suddenly blasted over and collided with Mu Yuxiong’s hand. It immediately pushed away Mu Yuxiong’s hand from grabbing at Yan Ji.

“Gu Jintan, what’s the meaning of this?” Mu Yuxiong looked at a gold-robed man in front of him with a hateful voice. Not too long ago, they had partnered up to go to the Black and White Mountain Range. Not much time had passed, but the once-allied cultivator had turned into a rival.

The golden-robed man simply ignored Mu Yuxiong. After stopping Mu Yuxiong, he likewise went to grab Yan Ji.

When things came to such a point, how could Mu Yuxiong not know that Gu Jintan also knew that this woman had a Heavenly Fragrance Body? He also stopped talking nonsense and took out his weapon, and blocked Gu Jintan.

Even though the two didn’t directly strike at Yan Ji, the aftermath of their clash still caused Yan Ji to fly backwards. She even spurted several mouthfuls of blood and suffered severe internal injuries.

Yan Ji tightly wrapped her arms around Ning Cheng and her eyes filled with despair. By this time, she had already seen more than ten people rushing this way and understood that they had come for her Heavenly Fragrance Body.

In just a few breaths, the area around her became a scene of carnage. The cultivators who came over fought each other furiously to snatch Yan Ji. Every time someone tried to grab Yan Ji, various attacks would immediately drown that person.

These attacks might not severely injure or kill the cultivators wanting to grab Yan Ji, but they definitely wounded Yan Ji. None of the cultivators who had come to catch her wished to save her; they all wanted to take Yan Ji away for their own cultivation. Therefore, since they had to deal with the others first, they naturally didn’t care about Yan Ji’s life and death, as her every body part was worth a fortune.

An incense stick later, Yan Ji’s bones started to shatter under the continuous aftershocks of the gruesome battles.

Suddenly two streaks rushed over and struck Yan Ji’s already battered body, forcing Yan Ji to spurt out another mouthful of blood. She looked down at Ning Cheng and couldn’t help but mutter, “If that’s the case, let’s go together.”

[1] The mentioned it as the brocade-robed man who had unleashed the sword strike. But here, the author changed it to the gold-robed man. It could be a typo as it’s only a single character change, but I decided against correcting it.